Oxymoron In Romeo And Juliet

Words: 532
Pages: 3

The perception of physical beauty is frequently confused with love. Throughout history there are numerous tales of this phenomena and Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet is no exception. The moment Romeo first sees Juliet, he believes he falls in love with her but instead is infatuated with her beauty. Juliet also becomes infatuated with Romeo’s physical attributes. However, Juliet’s parents reject Romeo and demand that she marry another suitor. When Romeo and Juliet are together both of them are very happy and peaceful, but as soon as they become separated, they both experience great sadness. In the play Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, Shakespeare uses oxymoron to show how infatuation can lead to great happiness but can also lead …show more content…
When Juliet first hears about when Romeo killed Tybalt she is extremely upset, but then when other people got mad at Romeo, she became defensive about it. In Act 3, Scene 2, when this happens, Juliet is sitting in her room waiting to hear about the honeymoon plan, when the nurse comes in and tells her what has happened to Tybalt. “ Just opposite to what thou justly seem’st-/ a damned saint, an honorable villain!” (78-79). Juliet again shows how she loves him but at the same time hates him through oxymoron. In this scene when Tybalt dies, the event drastically changes the love between them, and all goes downhill, towards a horrible ending of their love. Another piece of the story that helps to support the theme of physical beauty being confused with love is the death of Romeo and Juliet. Shakespeare uses oxymoron again in act 5 scene 3, “That heaven finds means to kill your joys with love” (293). This oxymoron shows how Romeo and Juliet killed their joys through love. This shows how immediate, infatuate love turns into death and sadness. Slow, meaningful love with last a lot longer than “love at first sight” as the Friar cautioned the two lovers when they married: “Therefore love moderately: long love doth so”